Distressed

To be honest, Zoe rarely paid attention to her own emotions, she was usually flat, dull, and as lifeless as could be at work, and so after they took away her most prized worker, and threatened to send her away as well, she couldn't go back to her department, in fact, she was so shaky and nervous, she started to wander the Ministry, taking the lift up to a random floor, getting off, pacing, and then moving back down to the Atrium. Once in the Atrium, she grew restless, and walked from the fountain, to the gates, to the fireplaces, and back to the fountain. People had long since begun their normal lives, but Zoe wasn't paying attention to anyone but her own thoughts.

She had no idea what she was going to do about the workers who hadn't shown up. Quite a few hadn't, and she worried for them... one of them being that poor Ransom boys girlfriend... Chastity Moor, who had originally been intended to be on Jack Dyllan's team.. now that that was no longer an option, Zoe knew she would do everything in her power to keep anyone from going under the wand of Felix Barker. She also had to think of Jack, she knew the girl was strong, but she didn't know how strong.. and Dementors were nasty creatures... if they had at you for long enough, you could end up like Barker.. but worse... doomed to never live a normal life again, so yes.. Zoe was worried, really worried, more then worried, she was freaking out and had no where to turn, she didn't have friends, or family, so she had no one but herself to talk to, and she wasn't about to do that at.

The fluent motions of a wand being twisted over and between one's fingers could be quite hypnotizing, when done correctly. When one did not come to a jarring halt after moving his fingers into a tricky position, or drop his wand as he rolled his fingers, it could almost be considered an art. "Wand Juggling", Nemo had deemed it. It was quite the pastime, and could also act as a decent disguise for the jittery movements that Nemo had become accustomed to making after a long day without a drink. Or, more truthfully; a long day without having had more than a spiked coffee to drink. With another quick twitch of his index finger, Nemo twirled his wand downward, forcing it to slip through the space before his next finger. He flicked his middle finger upward at the last moment and stopped his wand from falling any further, before proceeding in that way until he'd reached the end of his hand.

"G'night, Mortimer," A coworker bid Nemo farewell as he passed him in the hallway. Only for a brief moment had Nemo's attention been averted from his game, and yet it seemed his distraction had lasted a second too long, for his wand had slipped from his grasp. Without turning away from the fellow auror, Nemo replied, "It's a little early to be going home, isn't it? Even for you," and with a speedy hand he caught his falling wand.

The other smiled, and shook his head, his eyes locked on the instrument that Nemo was never seen without. "What have you been drinkin', mate? It's nearly seven-o-clock. I'm going home. Besides, what is there left to do here at this hour? Toss things around?" He inquired jokingly, before turning away from Nemo and starting towards the elevator. But Nemo was not keen to end their conversation on that note; "You don't get the fun cases unless you stick around. Evil doesn't sleep, after all." This statement earned Nemo a grin, and one last, amused reply before the man left Nemo to his Wand Juggling, "Since when have you cared about catchin' evil? It's the dueling that you want."

Not an hour later, hunger struck Nemo. With plans of later returning to his office, he had pulled on his jacket and had stepped into the nearest elevator. Such a shame it was that wizards had not yet been successful in inventing a food that could be conjured out of thin air. Instead, Nemo was left with no other choice but to leave the Ministry early (by his standards) and to swing by the nearest fast-food restaurant every evening. The faint ding of the elevator alerted Nemo that he had reached the building's first floor, and he began on his long walk to the door.

But he was stopped in his tracks by a surprising sight. "Zoe? I thought you pet groomers went home an hour ago," Nemo called across the room, his voice - which sounded quite like that of someone who'd grown fond of frequently inhaling helium - echoing off of the polished floors. "Should I be on the lookout for a rouge dragon?"

Zoe jumped nervously when she heard her name, and she stared at Mortimer Omara came over. More commonly named Nemo... well, at least he wasn't someone she had to really worry about. "Oh... hello..." She said distractedly, her eyes moving back to the fountain she was standing in front of. "Is it late? I didn't know..." She didn't glance at her watch, instead she just brought her hand up to her mouth and moved her bottom lip around between her fingers, distracted, and very near biting her near perfect nails. She stared at the fountain and sighed, glancing back at the man. "No.. no rogue dragons.. though very close to it." She frowned and watched Mortimer.

"Things just got very complicated...." She said and glanced towards the lifts for a moment, before she looked back at him and sighed, still rolling her lip in her fingers. "Sorry.. what are you still doing here?" She asked, looking at him. It was one of the rare times anyone had seen Zoe not perfectly professional, calm, cool, and collected. Instead, she looked.. nearly human, and she was nervous, and upset, and almost near tears. She couldn't help but start pacing slightly as she thought of how she must looked, and let her hand drop, trying to turn her face into it's professional mask again. "Sorry..." She said again, pulling her voice back into it's normal tones, straightening her skirt, and turning her gaze to look at Mortimer, it was obvious... she wasn't normally what she looked like she was, she was totally and completely human on the inside, even if she looked like a robot on the outside.

“No!” Nemo gasped sarcastically. He pinned every finger on his right hand together, and brought the tips of his fingers to rest over his open mouth in an expression of mock surprise. It was a well known truth that the woman was never seen without that stick up her ass, and thus Nemo felt that there was no more appropriate way to react to the honest-to-God emotions that she had begun to display, than to let loose his sarcastic sense of humor. “Not Zoe Gould! Nothing fazes that woman! Not lions, or tigers, or bears – what could be so frightening? What could possibly make her jumpy?” He inquired.

When the subject of the conversation was turned towards himself, Nemo shrugged his shoulders, and took a casual step towards Zoe. He had dropped his arms to his sides and had stuffed his hands in to the pockets of his jeans, returning to his usual, slouched stance. “Grindelwald is paying me to stay here after hours, so that I may... assist him, if your catching my drift. Ministers have needs too, you know,” Nemo replied, before shooting Zoe a wink.

But as he took another step towards the woman, Nemo moved out from behind his sarcasm, and offered Zoe to join him with a simple wave of his hand towards the door. “I’m going out to pick up a cheeseburger. If you want to tag along, you can – but you're paying if you do. You can only buy so much food with my salary.”

Zoe made a face when he mocked her emotions. It was true.. she was rather.. stuck up, most of the time, but really... she was worried! Jack Dyllan didn't know what she was getting herself into! And Zoe couldn't do a thing about it! She had pledged her allegiance to Grindelwald.. that was it... no more questions asked, and she had to stay here.. to protect her Department. She may hate creatures... with a passion, but.. she loved her job, and she loved her workers, very dearly, even if she didn't often look like she did, it was all an act of course.

When he gestured towards the door and said he was getting a burger, she stared at him for a long moment before she nodded slowly. "It has been a long time since I've gone out.. anywhere.." She said, and it was true, her nightly jaunts had grown so infrequent she was starting to get jumpy whenever the werewolves and vampires in her department came near. And she hadn't actually been out to eat with a friend in well... never. So his offer, it was kind, no normal person would offer something like that to Zoe, so she couldn't help but let a smile crack. Zoe Gould didn't have emotions, or so the rumors went, and so the fact that she had shown some, and the fact that he had invited her somewhere, it made her feel... special in a way. "Sure... I'd love to..." She said and waved her wand, her jacket appearing in her hand, as well as her handbag. She checked it for her money, before she nodded. "Lead the way."

Before having been instructed to do so, Nemo had turned away from Zoe and had doubled back in the way that he’d come, reversing any progress that he had made in nearing the woman. He had started on his way towards the main exit as Zoe had prepared herself for their departure. By the time that she had lifted her gaze in his dirrection once more, Nemo had already swung the double doors forward.

While Nemo found Zoe Gould to be quite the interesting case, the man never made any attempt to keep his hunger at bay, and thus there truly was no chance of him surviving another moment in the Atrium while his stomach complained of its discomfort.

But Nemo was not so rude as to leave Zoe standing on her own without having given her some signal to follow him. He shot an arm above his head, and folded four of his fingers downward towards his palm, waving towards the door. “Come on, Gould,” he called with an amused grin that he knew she would be unable to see. “I need to get my grub on!”

He was nearly out the door by the time she had her stuff, and she found herself hurrying along after him, her high heels clicking against the stone floor loudly as she did. He called for her to hurry up, and she quickened her pace, her eyes glued to the man. He seemed to find her amusing, and although she had never really done anything amusing, well, it was nice to know that SOMEONE didn't take her seriously ALL of the time. Her workers acted as though she had no sense of humor, she ate lunch in her office by herself, and she was basically a lonely person.

But he let her feel like a person for the first time, and the second she was out the door, she loosened up. It had been like this every day since she had started to work at the Ministry. The second she stepped beyond the door, her guard went up, a mask went on, and she was Zoe Gould.. or Ms. Gould, or whatever you called her.. Jack had always called her boss lady, and the thought first made Zoe smile, before her face fell and she hurried after Nemo.

At the end of each work day however, Zoe let her hair down, let her shoulder relax, and took a deep breath of the air outside the Ministry. She loved the place to death, she really did, but there were just places she couldn't be herself.. and that was one of them, so she became professional in it, and... well not outside. So being with someone else outside, someone from inside the Ministry, it threw her off, how was she supposed to act? Was she still uptight all the time? Or did she let herself relax.. in the end she compromised with herself and half relaxed, but kept up her professional air. She didn't want him thinking she had split personalities or something.. but she also didn't want him thinking she was totally carefree outside of the office and would assume it was okay to act like that INSIDE the office, so she let her shoulders relax, her pace slowed so she was walking beside him, and she looked around.

"Where did you have in mind anyway?"

The chilled evening air hit Nemo far harder than he’d originally anticipated. With a quick gasp, Nemo struggled to normalize his frantic breathing; a result of the shock that the cold had inflicted upon his diaphragm. As the bitter wind nipped at his ears he fumbled with the collar of his military jacket, pulling it upward in an attempt to shield the sides of his face. “Damn that’s cold!” Nemo called to the dark sky above, and began to bury his hands deep within his pockets. He certainly hadn’t remembered the weather being so harsh when he’d arrived at the Ministry earlier that morning. Evidently the temperature had dropped several degrees while he’d spent the day inside.

He turned on the spot to face the building that he’d just exited, and waited to be joined by Zoe.

Originally, Nemo had intended to order his dinner from the nearest fast-food restaurant. But his thirst for another shot of alcohol had long since become an overpowering need. At this point, a cheeseburger alone would not be enough to satisfy his cravings - of that Nemo was certain - and thus his mind had been made up for him. He slid his tongue over his too-dry lips in an attempt to reverse the damage that both the cold and the absence of a drink had done to the pink flesh there, but to no avail.

Having given up in his attempts to wet his lips, Nemo peeled them apart once more to speak, “There is a bar on the next street." He extended his index finger to point lazily in the direction he spoke of, where a vibrant neon sign could be seen. And once more, Nemo began to walk. He dragged his boot-clad feet forward, and jumped down from the curb to start across the street.

It was freezing. Absolutely freezing. Pulling her cloak around her tighter, she looked at him and smiled as he waited for her. When he mentioned a bar, she nodded. "I haven't been to a bar in.. ages.." She said frowning, and hurrying to catch up with him. To think of having a real alcoholic beverage.. it had been.. years since her last one, and the thought of actually being able to drink some and not worry about it.. she had always worried about it, she spent her weekends at the Ministry, and had quite the amount of Vacation time, sick days were built up, she just... didn't miss work, she didn't have a reason too.

So to think.. she had plenty of time to set aside, and she really... REALLY needed a drink, and a friend was offering to go with her, which she hadn't had in... a long time. She didn't have friends, it just.. didn't work out, she was the stuck up boss, they were her employees. Simple as that... but Nemo didn't work in her department.. and he was the kind of guy who took FIrewhiskey to work in his canteen. Everyone knew he did it, no one cared... Zoe hurried after him and then smiled walking up next to him. "Do you go to bars often then?" She asked slowly, trying to shake off her tension and be more... social.

The mere thought of sobriety was torturous. The warm presence of alcohol within his system had become so familiar to him, as well as the pleasant weightlessness that he often felt throughout his skull as he drank, that he simply could not bear the thought of going a single day without the sensation. Much like the heartbreak that others experienced after having separated from a lover, a sharp pain tore through Nemo's chest at the thought of breaking his habit. It was an impossibility, at best. He had already given in too completely to his need for the substance for him to live through the withdrawal.

Nemo turned his face towards Zoe, so to permit her to see the expression of over-exaggerated disbelief that he wore. In order to do so, Nemo found himself squinting against the brutally icy wind that proceeded to sweep throughout the streets of London. It was fortunate that they had already neared their destination, for Nemo did not believe that his exposed flesh could withstand much more of the cold weather before becoming frostbitten. "I'll just have to do something about that, then. I am going to get you utterly shitfaced tonight, Zoe Gould, mark my words. I want to see what is underneath that shell of yours," Nemo informed her with a smile that caused his eyes to crease at their corners.

He was quite pleased with himself for having gotten thus far. He had never truly believed that the uptight woman would take him up on his offer to go out that evening. Her agreement had come as quite the surprise to him. And he was determined to seize the opportunity that he had been given.

In response to her question, Nemo lifted his crystal blue gaze to meet eyes with Zoe once more. His amused grin hadn't yet wavered. "I was under the impression that my habits were a well-known fact to most Ministry employees. Or does gossip not reach you, being the emotionless robot that you are?" He asked mockingly, and stopped before the entrance to the bar that he'd chosen. It was a muggle establishment. And it was one of Nemo's favorites. He pulled the door open, and was immediately welcomed inside by a wall of warm air, and the familiar smell of nicotine, fried food, and cheap alcohol. "Home, sweet home."